News and Resources
Is ‘dwell time’ the next big thing for SEO?
Dwell time is the metric that runs through various search engine results pages (SERPs). It’s the time people spend reading those results pages before they go back to Google to take a look at other results. And it might be more important than we thought.
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/dwell-time
Instagram’s growth rate is declining
Thanks to apps like TikTok and Snapchat, Instagram’s growth rate has dropped and Pinterest has taken its place as the third largest social media app in the U.S.
https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/instagrams-growth-drops-pinterest-third-largest-social-app
Debate flares up over the ownership of ‘.org’ domains
Do you own a .org domain name?
Ethos Capital, a private equity firm, announced that it plans to buy the rights to the cyber neighborhood that is home to big nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations like the United Nations (un.org) and NPR (npr.org), and to little ones like neighborhood clubs.
The deal has been met with a fierce backlash, with good reason.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/07/technology/dot-org-private-equity-battle.html
Microsoft launches new Edge Chromium browser
As of December 2019, 65.40% of browser market share belonged to Chrome. The next closest browser is Apple’s Safari, with 14.22% of the market share.
Microsoft Edge sits way below that at a tiny 3.47%.
But Microsoft is looking to change that with its recent release of the Edge Chromium browser.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge
What Google’s plan for a cookie-free Chrome means for marketers
Google’s Justin Schuh, director of Chrome engineering, recently released a blog post stating that Google Chrome intends to kill off third-party cookies by 2020.
This proposed change introduces friction for advertisers and marketers who continue to rely (for better or worse) on third-party cookie tracking to display relevant ads to users.
https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/googles-new-plan-for-a-cookie-free-chrome-may-be-huge-for-advertisers
Google Updates adds Favicon to Desktop Search Results
Google has been displaying favicons in mobile search results for several months, and now these website icons have been added to desktop and laptop displays as well. Here Google lays out exactly how you can choose what favicon will appear next to your search result.
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9290858
Mailchimp claims over 60% share of email industry
The company reports that customers sent nearly 350 billion emails in 2019.
https://marketingland.com/mailchimp-claims-over-60-share-of-email-industry-in-latest-report-273926
Live Social Video Doubles Watch Time, Boosts Engagement 10X
Here’s why live social video is a necessity in 2020:
What Marketers Need to Know about CCPA
CCPA, or the California Consumer Privacy Act, is the latest legislation focused on improving how online users can control the data businesses obtain from them, and how those businesses are able to utilize it.
The new law requires updates to your business disclosures, including letting consumers know about the existence of the law, their specific rights in regards to their data, as well as enabling users to obtain copies of, or order the deletion of, their personal information from any business.
https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/ccpa-what-you-really-need-to-know
How to Answer “Email Marketing is Dead”
Email is still a force to be reckoned with in 2020. Although there are new kids on the block like social media and PPC, email is still as relevant and powerful as ever.
Here is what you are looking at in terms of ROI across the digital landscape:
Email – 59%
Social Media – 21%
Display Ads – 14%
Video – 5%
As you can see, email provides the highest ROI.
The next time someone tells you that email marketing is dead, show them these 141 email marketing stats:
https://financesonline.com/email-marketing-statistics/
What should marketers be doing about Google’s BERT update?
BERT, or Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, is Google’s most recent algorithmic update to how it processes queries and curates page results. Instead of just using keyword matching, BERT will seek to understand the meaning behind sentences, paragraphs, and the entire article on a page.
Here’s how to optimize your content for BERT.
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/bert-algorithm-seo/343097/
Spotify introduces game-changing ad technology for podcasts
Spotify announced a new approach to its podcast marketing technology. The proprietary “streaming ad insertion” (SAI) allows Spotify’s sponsors to deliver targeted ads to podcast listeners through the use of real-time data analysis.
Resources for Collecting and Sending Emails for Free
Are you on a budget? Begin growing your email list with one of these:
- Contact form 7: WordPress plugin to collect email addresses
- Hello Bar: Displays a bar across the top of the page to get more email subscribers
- Mailchimp: You can send 12,000 emails to 2,000 subscribers for free
- ManyContactsBar: Free contact form sits on top of your website
- Moosend: You can send unlimited Emails to 1,000 subscribers for free
- Scroll Triggered Box: This WordPress plugin has consistently increased conversion rates by several times. Be sure to test this one prior to use, as it may not be compatible with all WP sites.
- Sumome List Builder: Create professional-looking pop-ups that appear on clicks, timers and before people leave
- Sumome Scroll Box: A polite way to ask your visitors for their email address as they finish reading your latest blog post or product page
Click To Tweet: This plugin allows you to easily create tweetable content for your readers right from WordPress. Make it easy to share your content on Twitter, and grow your traffic. https://clicktotweet.com/
Later: Visually plan, schedule and analyze posts for Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. https://later.com/
WordPress Pin it Button for Images: Your visitors can hover their mouse over your images and click the “Pin It” button to post them to Pinterest, potentially increasing your traffic. https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-add-pinterest-pin-it-button-in-your-wordpress-blog/
SharedCount: Track URL shares, likes, tweets, and more. https://www.sharedcount.com/
Crowdfire: Follow / unfollow people on Twitter & Instagram. Automatically discover articles and images your audience will love, so you can share them to all your social profiles and keep your timelines buzzing. https://crowdfireapp.com
SocialRank: Identify, organize, and manage your audience on social media. https://socialrank.com/
Ritetag App: When you share a URL in a social post, forum or email, etc., you get a way to retain your connection with your audience. You can display a text, image or video ad on top of the page that opens when people click that URL. You can entice people to follow you here or there, get newsletter signups, launch a startup or even sell something. https://ritetag.com/
Buffer Free Plan: Craft the perfect post for each social network, all in one place. Plan and publish your content for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, all from one simple dashboard. https://buffer.com/pricing/publish
Bitly: Create, share, and track shortened links. https://bitly.com/
Addthis: Simple share buttons and a full suite of website tools like list builder, link promotion, and recommended posts, all for free. Get more shares, follows and conversions. https://www.addthis.com/
Sumo Share: Makes it super easy for your visitors to share your content to their friends, family and others with built-in social media buttons on your site. https://sumo.com/app/share
Disqus: The internet’s favorite comment plug-in makes it easy for publishers to bring their content to life, fuel colorful discussions, efficiently moderate comments, and build engaged communities. https://disqus.com/
Google Forms: Free beautiful online survey & form builder. https://www.google.com/forms/about/
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